Impaired angiogenic potency of bone marrow cells from patients with advanced age, anemia, and renal failure

The implantation of autologous bone marrow-derived cells has been used for the treatment of ischemic diseases, but obvious interindividual differences were observed in the improvement of regional perfusion and cardiac function after treatment. We examined the angiogenic potency of bone marrow cells from patients with different clinical backgrounds.

Bone marrow cells were collected from 25 patients scheduled to undergo sternotomy for various surgical procedures. We examined the quality of bone marrow cells and investigated their angiogenic potency by using an ischemic limb model in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency.

When compared with their control cohort, bone marrow cells from patients with advanced age, renal failure, or anemia had significantly less c-kit- and CD34-positive stem cells (P < .05) and showed significantly lower vascular endothelial growth factor production and colony-forming units in culture (P < .05). Furthermore, the implantation of bone marrow cells from patients with advanced age, renal failure, or anemia into the ischemic limbs of mice also resulted in significantly worse blood flow recovery and clinical score when compared with the implantation of bone marrow cells from their control cohorts (P < .05). However, the bone marrow cells from patients with diabetes and hypertension did not show significant impairment of angiogenic potency when compared with their control cohorts.

The quality and angiogenic potency of bone marrow cells differs among patients. Advanced age, renal failure, and anemia should be the risk factors related to poor angiogenic potency of bone marrow cells for the treatment of ischemic diseases.